I CAME AS SOON AS I HEARD LIR OC, SAY MORE PLEASE. I would like every detail on her please and thank you!
OMG thank you so much for asking, I've been feeling rather down about no one seeming to show interest, so this means a lot 😭
Anyway, my Lady in Red OC is named Elena. I haven't been able to draw her out myself, since it feels like I've forgotten how to draw, but these are two picrew images I've made of her general concept in looks.
When she met Vergil in Fortuna, and two decades later post DMC5 when she reunites with him. Back story and stuff under the cut, because there's A LOT!
Overall Backstory and how she met Vergil
Elena comes from an old, wealthy, noble family in Fortuna. She is the second child of three, older brother, named Julius, and younger sister named Rosalina. However she is the blacks heep of the family, not caring for the traditional noble values and customs, nor the Order’s faith. (she’d be considered “agnostic” I guess? Like she believes IF Sparda existed, he was merely a powerful demon who rebelled, and not a god to be revered. She knows demons DO exist, as many in Fortuna do, but whether or not Sparda did, she is unsure)
Her father, the head of household, is all about social standing and public appearances, expecting his family to uphold all the traditional noble family values and prestige. Therefore he doesn’t look highly upon his eldest daughter, with his son on his way to becoming a Holy Knight, and his youngest daughter devout in her beliefs. The rest of the family also looks down on Elena. She isn't close to any of them, not since her grandmother passed away when she was 12, as that was the only family member she had a healthy relationship with.
Elena, like Vergil, is an avid reader. She has a strong preference for epic myths and poetry, and any sort of foreign literature that is rare in Fortuna. Elena is also a fan of William Blake too. She also enjoys learning; sciences, history, languages, occult knowledge, and especially about anything outside of Fortuna, and has become fluent in Fortuna’s ancient dialect.
This is one of the reasons her family doesn't like her much. Think Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and how she's seen as "odd" for her love of reading. Reading so much leads to "ideas and thinking" (as Gaston put it), which then leads to nonconformist thinking, independence, and unable to be controlled, etc.
While she doesn’t need to work due to her family’s social standing and wealth, Elena chooses to work in the Grand Library. She gets to be surrounded by what she loves, AND is away from her pretentious “holier-than-thou” “you’ll never be a proper lady” family.
This was how she met Vergil. She stayed waaaaaaaay past working hours in the library, avoiding going home of course, and came across Vergil who snuck in during the middle of the night. Elena found him struggling to read some of the older books in the collection, due to being in an old Fortunan dialect he was unfamiliar with. However Elena was fluent in it, and agreed to help him with his studies on Fortuna's history and religion. In exchange, he'd help her leave the island.
The course of their relationship, going from "business partners" so to speak, to friends, and of course lovers, takes place over a year. Vergil gradually becomes more and more interested in Elena due to the fact she's not like the rest of the island, has more a rebellious streak, and even shares common interests with him. I don't think Vergil would be interested AT ALL in someone who was mindlessly devoted to the Order's faith; and instead prefer someone with a mind of their own, who questions things, who isn't passive, and has a backbone. I agree with Dan Southworth's opinion that not only would Nero's mother have been significant to Vergil, but someone worth his time and attention as well.
Her family certainly does not approve of Elena spending a considerable amount of time with a foreigner. At some point she gets in a nasty argument with her father, who backhands her harshly enough, his gaudy ring not only bruises her cheek, but leaves a noticeable cut, later scar. When Vergil finds out he is quite angered by this, with half a mind to cut down her father for something so dishonorable. (Yeah he's one to talk post DMC5 after ripping Nero's arm off 😅)
After this incident, Elena makes a comment about herself compared to her family; “I’m like a thorny, blue rose amongst a bouquet of perfect, thornless red roses. I don’t belong, to them I might as well be as unnatural as a blue rose.” (yes this is a Nero reference with his pistol’s name 😏 because I’m a sucker for parallels and symbolic references!)
The next day Vergil actually gifts her a blue rose! Unbeknownst to her at the time, the rose has a teensy bit of Vergil's demonic power in it. Look, if Dante can conjure roses out of nowhere, Vergil can too, but his are always blue.
In fact, he comes to refer to Elena as his "blue rose" affectionately.
(Sidenote, I have the headcanon/image of Sparda conjuring roses for Eva, and the twins want to do the same. Sparda finds them passed out from exhaustion from trying to use their power to conjure roses for their mama. He does teach them how though...maybe I'll write that scene, dunno...)
Surprisingly this rose never wilts until Vergil is gone and trapped in the underworld under Mundus' torture. It’s at this moment Elena realizes Vergil is not returning, and must be dead. (I am also a sucker for the trope of a physical object becoming damaged in symbolizing the tragic fate of a character it’s connected to)
Needless to say, Vergil's eventual departure was heartbreaking for them both. While he agreed to help her leave the island, he convinces her to stay as it is too dangerous where he's going. He does promise that, "When I have the power I need, and destroy the demon king, I will return to you." Please note the VERY specific phrasing and conditions in that promise.
(at the end of DMC3, he did NOT acquire the power he needed, nor did he defeat Mundus, therefore did not fulfill the requirements of his promise to Elena)
Her family was NOT thrilled when they found out she was pregnant with Nero, not wanting a “foreigner’s bastard” in their household. They never planned on letting Elena be a mother.
So when she required a c-section, for which she was unconscious for, her father took advantage of this, and told Elena that Nero was stillborn, while sending the newborn off to the orphanage. Her father didn't even have decency to tell her whether she had a boy or girl stating, "What does it matter? It's dead anyway."
Elena never even got to see or hold Nero.
A year later, after suffering the depression of losing her lover and child, the cruel emotional abuse of her family, Elena had enough and ran away.
After escaping to the mainland, she encounters a self-exiled retired Holy Knight named Marcus, who grew disillusioned with the Order and its faith. Marcus took Elena in, treating her as if she were his own daughter, and trained her to hunt demons. Elena's weapon of choice being a rapier, and she even learned magic to enhance her abilities and make up for a lack of demonic power. As for the way she fights, well I'd say it's very reminiscent of...
(Yes Weiss is a HUGE inspiration for Elena...)
Post DMC5 and Reunion with Vergil
20 or so years later, once Dante and Vergil return from hell, Elena asks for Dante's help in a particularly difficult demon hunting job she couldn’t do alone. Turns out, the job involves a Devil Worshipping cult that was to ressurect/release a very powerful demon king. Said demon king turns out to be none other than... Mundus himself!
When Elena does see Vergil again, she is rightfully PISSED at first. To the point she even attacks him for leaving her. She didn't know he straight up DIED.
At first Vergil doesn't immediately recognize her, but when he notices little things; Her jade green eyes, the scar on her cheek from her father, the way her black hair shines almost blue in the sunlight, and the rose oil she wears, his memories of her come rushing back.
Elena also doesn't immediately recognize Nero as her son, as she met him before going to Dante, since of course...she never saw her baby, or knew she had a son! When Nero mentions Dante can help, and after meeting him, she assumed Nero was Dante's son instead. She knew Vergil had a twin brother, so the resemblance of Nero and Vergil didn't register for her.
When it is revealed to her Nero's her son, both of them are quite emotional. Nero is angry that this whole time, both his parents were alive (sort of in Vergil's case). He's angry that he COULD have had his family. Elena is also angered at her family's lies, and understands why Nero is upset too. In fact, she offers Nero the CHOICE to let her be a part of his life now. She knows that even though she's his mother, she HAS NO RIGHT to be a part of his life if he doesn't want her to be. She's still virtually a stranger to him, with no real relationship formed yet.
This is one thing I wanted to be quite different from other LiR interpretations where she reunites with Nero. I wanted Nero to also have a say in it, whether he wants her in his life or not. Of course, Nero being Nero, and deep down always wanting his family, he lets her. He knows his "abandonment" was no fault of hers. However Elena still feels guilty about it, since she so easily believed her family's lie. She thinks she should have disregarded the lie, demanded to see for herself, just in general fought harder for the truth.
I do still need to develop their bond though.
I do have an inkling of an idea that at some point, Elena is injured and nearly killed by a powerful demon (think boss battle level demon), and Vergil saves her. He briefly thinks he's lost yet another loved one because he wasn't strong enough, having a flashback to the day his mother died. But of course, that's not the case and he DOES save Elena.
It's in this moment after he saves her, does she confess how much she needed him, how much pain she went through over the years, but that she STILL needs him, that she STILL loves him. Vergil also realizes how much she meant to him, how she still does, and what he so foolishly threw away decades ago.
In the end, all three Sparda boys kill Mundus for good. (Insert a new version of the "Jackpot" scene, only it's ALL THREE saying it as they plunge their swords into each of Mundus' eyes.)
Also have this mental image after they return, of Dante looking at his brother pining after Elena while she hugs Nero, thrilled he came back alive, unsure what he should do; and Dante just shoves him forward saying, "Move your emotionally constipated ass and go smooch your girl!"
Elena and Vergil reconcile, she forgives him for everything he's done. At first Elena believes he's going to leave again, returning to Devil May Cry with his brother. However he says he's not, IF she will allow it.
He states that NOW he has fulfilled the requirements of his promise years ago. That he NOW truly has the power he desired, AND has defeated Mundus. This actually takes Elena by surprise that he remembered that. Tearfully, she embraces him and tells him that YES, he can stay with her. (She inherited the small estate of Marcus when he passed away, it resides on a seaside cliff that overlooks the sea, towards Fortuna)
The lovers rekindle their romance, because I AM NOT HERE for that toxic, hateful exes/divorcees bullshit! What is the point of a VerLir reunion if they just end up hating each other anyway? Ugh. Laaaame. Boring!
Instead their story would be one with themes of forgiveness, redemption, HOPE, and second chances. The story of two, lost, lonely, and broken people finding solace and love in each other.
Fuck that was long, buuuut anyway, that's the overall gist of Elena and Vergil's story.
Other trivia and tidbits!
Elena absolutely LOVES anything chocolate and hazelnut. Like, her favorite treats are those Ferrero Roche chocolates.
I envisioned some parallels between her and Vergil. Both come from wealthy, aristocratic families (seemingly so in Vergil's case.) However where Vergil knew familial love, but tragically lost his family, Elena did not know familial love after her grandmother passed, and ends up leaving them.
She actually HATES the now iconic red dress. She only wears it when forced to go to church services by her family. In fact she much prefers to wear shades of blue, grey, and white. Her favorite color is actually the same turquoise blue of Vergil's DMC3 coat 🤭
At some point after her and Vergil begin living together, she creates a flower garden, with blue roses of course. Eventually a stray black cat comes to reside in this garden. The Cat Distribution System works its magic, and the cat is basically theirs. Elena returns home one day to find Vergil reading, the black cat on his lap. "Is that the garden cat?" "Yes. I've named him Blake and have scheduled a vet appointment to get him fixed and vaccinated." "Oh....guess we have a cat now."
Anyway, that's currently all I have right now. PLEASE feel free to ask me ANYTHING else, the more specific the better, because that allows me to think more about her as a character.
Also, I HAVE written ONE little fic of her and Vergil Nothing too special, just a little smut fic of after they reunite. Actually the first time I've ever written such a thing, so I was REALLY stepping out of my comfort zone writing it!
Fic can be found on my AO3 HERE!
Though I am also writing a Royal/Fantasy/Arranged Marriage AU as a personal side project, but I'm literally WRITING it in a notebook, and I don't know if I will finish it, let alone type it up and post it, but I'm open to questions about it too, as it might give me more ideas.
